


Dandan in the Dawn

by tide_ms



Category: Nine Muses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Artificial Intelligence, F/F, Private Investigators, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 23:34:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12023400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tide_ms/pseuds/tide_ms
Summary: Hyemi found a closure she had not been expecting. She possibly also found love.(Warning for: dark themes, kidnapping, suicides.)





	Dandan in the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> \- This was written for [allmyladies](http://allmyladies.dreamwidth.org/) fic fest. Prompt was: Hyemi/Kyungri, detective agency solving crime/mysteries.
> 
> \- I sort of lost against time with this plot /o\ It was a joy to world-build and plan this, though.
> 
> \- Thank you to (Samuraiter) for beta-ing. Any remaining mistakes and typos are mine.

Hyemi believed in superstitions to a certain extent. It was hard not to when there were beings who could not look at the sun living around her. Besides, everyone did, right? At some point in their lives? Superstitions were interesting. History was full of them, fiction was still full of them, and, apparently, reality was as well.

Or at least that's what the detectives over at the 12th Department were suggesting according to Keumjo.

"I don't think it is a wild theory," Keumjo continued. "Isn't everything born out of truth, anyway?"

Hyemi wondered if her assistant was actually intrigued by the possibility of ghosts existing, and maybe considering it, or simply high, but since their tiny office was foggy with smoke, the weak daylight seeping through the window creating fading shapes and dancing figures out of it, she decided that there just weren't enough evidences to know for sure.

From afar, came the hums of flying vehicles. The ones that passed the closest to their building sent faint tremors in their trek, but the others remained a distant presence.

"But Sundae Ghosts? Why not the Forest Witches? They're more popular," Hyemi asked, wincing when her tone sounded much similar to Keumjo's.

"That's exactly what I said."

Hyemi looked at her. There was a thought floating around in her mind, thin enough to flee her grasp, important enough to return as a reminder. Her assistant should really stop trying out new mixtures of relaxing herbs.

The numbness weighing her down was nice, though, with unexplained, inescapable joy.

Their laughter fill the quiet of their building for a few minutes. The 12th Department's detectives were being silly.

 

,

 

"Hey! Sungah, I just want to talk!"

"That's what you said last time!" Sungah looked back at her, but her pace did not falter. --that is, her slow pace.

Hyemi pursed her lips, and ran faster despite how every breath she took felt like sharpness clawing at her throat and lungs.

 

In the days where they have leads to follow and people to question, Hyemi and Keumjo did not quite spend their afternoon meditating or giggling at how absurd Dandan's police could be. In those days, they closed their cases, and, as usual, there was running included.

Through the alleys of Dandan, just a few minutes before midnight, they chased one of the city's most powerful figures --, Hyemi on her feet and Keumjo in the car currently screeching through the streets while trying to catch up without causing an accident. But just as Sungah reached the end of the narrow path, her way was blocked by a car that was not Hyemi's.

To be exact, the car was merely inches away from Sungah, who tumbled over the hood, then fell to the ground.

She did not bother to get up after that, proving yet again that she was still more human than vampire.

Hyemi's knees hurt, and breathing itself hurt, and Keumjo was a little late, but the door to the driver side was opened and a woman with short, blonde hair appeared, seemingly not worried for the person she almost hit.

It went like this after that: Hyemi had given her best to stand upright while catching her breath, but her heart throbbed hard for a reason that was no longer exhaustion. The woman's smile was toothy, and she had a two digits number carved on her left cheek, crystallic and slightly shimmering thanks to Dandan's scattered neon signs.

_Made to be seen only up close, so the illusion that they were humans remained intact. The number was part of them._

"Detective Pyo, I have a message for you from Mayor Park."

Hyemi was dizzy from all the running, her sides ached, and the rare quiet of the night around her only amplified the noise of her own heartbeats, still stuck in a quick pace due to the presence in front of her, looking at her with eyes as profound as any human's. Its voice rang with life as it continued. "Case number 3049SR.D, Im Seoyeon. It was your case." Its blinking was normal and so was the hesitant movement of its hand as it extended it, a file held carefully between its thumb and index finger.

It wasn't every day that Hyemi got to see an Artificial Human, and maybe that's why she could not come up a reply or shush one complaining Sungah.

Keumjo was breathless when she reached them, quickly helping Sungah get up. "I thought we decided we won't chase them anymore."

They did, but if they did not talk with Sungah now, they would have to wait weeks before she decided it was safe to leave her lair again, and Mrs. Kim really needed to know her daughter's whereabouts. Lucky for Mrs. Kim, Sungah knew everyone and everything in the city. Unfortunate for Hyemi, it was Sungah who knew everyone and everything going on in Dandan.

Hyemi stared at the file, then met the A-H's eyes. Its number was 11 -- the class it was made of, which, if she remembered history correctly, meant this blonde gazing back at her, expectantly, had been existing for over a century.

Keumjo's _"Oh!"_ brought Hyemi back to focus on the situation. She was staring at the A-H11 with shock -- it was her first time seeing one as well -- while Sungah practically rested all her weight on her.

"They're frightening, aren't they? I almost shat my pants when I first saw one of them," Sungah commented as if the A-H11 wasn't standing right there with them. "But that's probably because we shot it and it didn't die because it turned off the pain sensors."

Hyemi did not share the same sentiment with her. They were not frightening. This one was not at least. Short, and determined to keep a smile on its -- her face. Hyemi took the file in silence, not knowing how to escape the unwarned for anger within her, or how to return the A-H11's widened smile.

"Aw, look at its skin, poor thing, its physical core must have been damaged," Sungah added, provoking more annoyance to poke at Hyemi.

"Wait for me in the car, I'll be with you in a minute," Hyemi instructed Keumjo, then faced the A-H11 again, whose hand was back at her side and paleness was unnatural and evidently wrong.

"What is this about?" Hyemi asked as Sungah started another set of complaints while Keumjo walked her to the car. _She probably still did not know that was how Keumjo found most of their information._

"We will see you soon," the A-H11 simply answered. Nervous. Shy, maybe, if the tinge of red in her cheeks was anything to go by with.

 _Was it already there? The faint blush?_ Hyemi was not sure. They had stopped making artificial humans long before she was born, long before she could see or learn how physiological their silicon bodies were. Not that she would want to. Making them was wrong in the first place.

"We?" she asked.

The A-H11 smiled again, a different smile. A pleased one? Happy? Putting the ghostly skin aside, her smile beamed with the same normalcy Hyemi had not expected to sense from an Artificial Human. "Mayor Park and I," she said before getting into her car.

 

,

 

There were over a dozen cases in the file, or, to put it another way, there was plenty of evidences connecting a lot of cases together that otherwise had not shared more than a name: Sundae Cliffs Suicides.

Hyemi was familiar with most of them. They were not her cases, but they were the city's sad story. Most, if not everyone, knew one thing or two about the cases. Truth or a myth, it did not matter, the suicides were a shared pain between many in Dandan, one, heavy loss.

 

There was only one photo in the file, however, belonging to the case Hyemi took. It wasn't a very old photo, but it wasn't preserved properly, either -- two edges were bent, and tiny drops of liquid, water perhaps, mixed the colors together on one side.

 _As expected of Dandan police,_ Hyemi thought. She had looked at the photo only once. She did not need a second glance for she had a memory vivid enough to show her everything she needed to know: a corpse of a woman in her late forties drawn to the river's bank, cold and beaten by the rocks in the rushing current, her eyes open and devoid of life.

"What do you think?" Hyemi asked when she realized the quiet of her apartment. The traffic outside was at its peak, considering it was the time for vampires to return home after work, and yet, her silence, Keumjo's silence were louder.

It was understandable, though. And the ache that Hyemi thought she had succeeded at forgetting had not really left her heart.

"Whether it's real or not, or creepy and horrifying?"

Keumjo's pupils were still trembling left and right to read as many words as she could, as fast as she could.

Hyemi considered. "Both."

 

Keumjo met her gaze then, let out a sigh, and stood to pace the room. If she hadn't thought it was real, she would have said so already.

"The file says nineteen out of -- how many cases are there? I can only remember the teacher from Sunrise as being the seventy-third one to commit suicide at the cliffs."

"Seventy-eight. The most recent one was about nine months ago."

"Seventy-eight. So the file says nineteen out of seventy-eight cases had more things in common than the police ever stated. All nineteen people were fired from their jobs a year before they went to the cliffs due to a random lay off from their employers, and not one of them managed to keep a job after that."

Keumjo spoke as if she was trying to piece together the story the file had brought, and while Hyemi thought she would not rush to believe any of it, every word Keumjo let out prompted her heart to pace in fear and worry.

"Their lives only went downhill from there on." Keumjo paused, biting her lip in nervousness. "Depression and desperation came next, but we can't be sure about that because it was only their neighbours and friends' statements, so we have finanicial issues confirmed."

Keumjo then stopped and looked at her, her shoulders slumped and brows furrowed. "All nineteen of them were fired? And not one body turned up at the river's bank like the only one who didn't go through unexpected financial issues, and did have depression?"

It wasn't defeat that was drawn on Keumjo's face. It was fear after hearing those facts out loud. It was sensing the possibility of them being the truth, and what that truth might be.

Blood Networks.

Hyemi felt her own apprehension rising with every beat of her heart.

 

,

 

Mayor Park was new to Dandan -- to this generation of Dandan, at least, having moved back only a few weeks prior to the elections.

She was still considered an outsider because of that, despite the efforts that she had been putting into fixing the city. She troubled some with how much she knew about Dandan compared to how little they would ever know (records didn't really equal actually living through the past eras), and she intrigued others with just the serene upturn of her lips.

Hyemi was on neither side, even if she completely understood both the worry and the fascination, though maybe not the raving admirers that came with the latter. They usually were on the mayor's tail at public events, and while she was expected to shut them off, Mayor Park only waved at them, a smile on her face that she sometimes covered with her hand, or sent finger hearts their way.

She had them charmed, like most superstars and glamorous figures visiting or residing in Dandan. Humans or vampires, they did not seem to mind being under her spell.

 

She should be more strict -- Hyemi blinked out of her daze and straightened her back. She had just spent the last few hours watching videos of the mayor and reading articles about her plans for the city to try and figure out why she came to her, why she still hadn't visited her for more in-depth talk about such a worrying crime, but found nothing. The mayor had not even mentioned crimes or anything related to laws being broken in her recent interviews. Which was telling, maybe. If humans realized there were blood networks in Dandan, the city would turn into ruins in the blink of an eye.

 

The sun would rise soon, Hyemi could tell from the increasing hums creeping into the space of her apartment with tremors and passing lights.

 

Hyemi stretched, listening to Keumjo's soft snoring.

It annoyed Hyemi that the mayor didn't seem to have considered how unnerving the evidences were, how the file opened up old wounds.

The mayor probably had no idea how neglectful the police were about in the Im Seoyeon case, Hyemi's first case as a pirvate detective, or else she would not have kept her waiting for four days now.

 

Hyemi realized her anger had started to rush through her, searing and heavy enough to suffocate. The police didn't even want to look for Seoyeon, quickly jumping to the conclusion that she followed the others' path, but they could have saved her if they had listened to her neighbour's worries. Someone could have brought her back from the cliffs alive.

 _There were tears in her eyes._ Hyemi frowned, getting up and heading for the kitchen. She was seventy-one hours late when she found Im Seoyeon, and Mayor Park didn't seem to realize how awful--

Calm knocks on her door drew another frown to Hyemi's face. Working hours were written clearly on the plate beside her door, and it was freaking five in the morning. Normal people, humans and vampires alike, did not visit at such an hour.

Unless...

Hyemi shook Keumjo awake as she the knocks sounded again. She fetched her pistol from its holster -- standard precaution for a visitor of this hour. Any hour really when it came to Sundae region cities. (Except for Waters City, criminals had only two hours a day to do their crimes. Strangely, that rule did not help lowering the crime rate, but it did make people feel safe, so they kept it.)

 

Hyemi opened the door after the third batch of steady knocks almost eagerly, but if that showed, then the A-H11 did not seem to notice because her smile is instant when their eyes met, hesitant and humane. The severe paleness was gone, replaced by warmth and beaming naturalness from her face.

The physical core got fixed? Hyemi found the answer in its hands -- her hands. Hyemi was not sure which word to use, and that bugged her. The A-H were never made to be an existence of their own, they were a product made with the precision and arrogance of a mere human being. A regal tool to show off. Essenceless and owned. That was, until the tool became a weapon that turned its head and shot the arrogant in the head, calling for freedom. For recognition as individuals. As humans.

The world resolved to making obedient robots and entertaining machines only after that, while the attempts to erase the presences of the A-H only caused more pain and suffering until it was clear that humans failed miserably.

"Detective Pyo, good morning," the A-H11 said, voice strong yet trembling, which made Hyemi's heart swell with sadness. The A-H11's hands -- one was too white while the other looked normal -- were still clasped together in a way that gave her away. She was nervous.

 

"Morning," Hyemi answered, dropping her hand from the door's knob. _Welcoming._ It was the least she could do. She attempted a smile, it was lacking but Hyemi meant it.

The A-H11's smile widened, brightened, as Keumjo's footsteps faded a short distance behind Hyemi.

"Mayor Park is--is waiting for you on the roof," the A-H11 told her, blushing.

"What?"

Hyemi checked her watch. There was not much time before sunrise and Mayor Park was being ridiculously not careful with this.

"I told her it was risky, but she wouldn't listen," the A-H11 spoke again, and her pout was so simple, real, that Hyemi's rising anger crumbled. "Please don't be late with her," she added, and it was then that Hyemi realized that the videos of old times had not prepared her for how fluent artificial humans were in appearing human.

 

Hyemi looked over her shoulder to see Keumjo deep in thoughts, and when she finally lifted her gaze, her conclusion was something Hyemi had not thought of. _Explicitly._ "Maybe she missed the sunrise?"

_Or, vampires did not like to live above the 50th floor. It was safer to talk up there._

,

Dawn was the quietest time in Dandan. Vampires were safely back in their homes, and humans were either still asleep or ready to head for work.

Hyemi's footsteps resounded calmly off the wet ground -- melted snow, the last snow of the winter.

The buildings all around Hyemi, some taller than her building, casting shadows, and others shorter, had squares of lights and blackness scattered all along their structures, tiny worlds of their own.

 

Mayor Park stood in the shadow of one of those buildings, and the first thing Hyemi noticed was that she was shorter in person. Hyemi noticed that when the mayor stopped peeking over the edge barrier.

"It is very scary at this height. Don't you find it scary?" Mayor Park spoke in a wistful voice, meeting Hyemi's eyes. "Living at the 92nd floor?"

The first thing Hyemi understood, though, was the mayor's charm. The first thing that touched her heart was the softest of shimmers held in the depths of her eyes.

"You get used to it after a while," Hyemi answered, and though there weren't many vehicales flying above the top of her building at this hour, the trembles made by the few ones passing were prominent enough, shaking her heart even more.

"Ah, yes, I know what you mean." Mayor Park chuckled, causing Hyemi's own mind and heart to fail her with rushing thoughts and quickened pace.

Hyemi linked her hands behind her back, refusing to look away from the mayor's knowing look. She could hear her heart.

The mayor did not comment on that, nor did her smile became a lofty smirk. She only looked away, at the sky, at the buildings, and Hyemi only waited because waiting meant watching strands of the mayor's hair flying and falling with the winter's winds, and waiting meant seeing her eyes glimmer under the many neon lights that were built into Dandan's identity.

"Do you remember Blood Networks from history class, Detective Pyo? There was always a mention of them in every topic related to vampires."

 

Hyemi had wanted to be wrong this time. "I do," she replied, her heart becoming heavy with worry and fear yet again, except right now it felt like that fear was twisting in her stomach. "But is it possible? All Sundae region's vampires are regiestered and monitored for any illegal drinking of human blood."

"It is, I don't know how, or why they would risk the peace between us, but there is one in Dandan, and we need to find it before anyone else knows about it," the mayor said, and her anger, evident on her face, in her voice, calm like a storm about to erupt, told Hyemi that this hit Mayor Park hard.

 

How could it not? Her campaign had been all about protecting Dandan from both humans and vampires, and to have this happening right on her watch when the one thing she had never hesitated to show was her support for vampires' right to a humane life must be infuriating.

"Can I trust you to find who did this, detective Pyo?" she asked, staring at the horizon, a long stripe of dark blue, hidden by heavy clouds and dull buildings, and promising a sun that would wash their city with flitered light -- greyed and blued, and lacking its warmth.

 

"You already do, or else you'd have gone to V-division or the police, but we both know they aren't an option, are they?"

Mayor Park smiled. "I actually had several candidates in mind to solve this case. Two of them are officers in V-division, but none of them left the impression you did," she told her, holding her gaze. "Plus you worked on the Im Seoyeon case, so I thought you'd be furious to know she could have been saved if the police did not announce her disappearance as another suicide."

 _There it was again,_ Hyemi's anger, shooting right at her heart.

The mayor wasn't wrong, but Hyemi did not like being seen so clearly. She decided to not comment on it and only gave an arched eyebrow as a reaction, to which the mayor added. "Anger and grief are not such a bad fuel like some say. We'd need them to keep us going whenever the investigations led us nowhere."

 

Hyemi simply hummed at that. She really wasn't wrong. "But Mayor, you do know we have never met before, right?"

"Kyungri, please."

Mayor Park did not blush saying that, but Hyemi saw lovely shyness on her features nonetheless. Her own cheeks burned with heat at that, so she looked away. She really understood it now, the mayor's charm. It was as if a million stars had gathered to attract only her.

It was a ridiculous thought, intriguing enough to create fogginess in Hyemi's head for a moment.

"Not directly, no." Mayor Park turned to lean on the barrier. "I was... around," she said, "when you were fighting with your informer."

"Sungah?! She isn't my informer, and that wasn't an actual fight. Kind of. We just needed someone to trust her."

"You went to the emergency room that day."

"So did she!"

She drew a surprise to Kyungri's face with her immediate response. Hyemi cleared her throat. "She just helps me sometimes if she feels like it," Hyemi explained. "And may I ask how did you know about all of that?"

"Like I said, I had several candidates in mind, you were one of them."

"So you were watching us?"

"Only to know if I could trust you with this." Kyungri answered, moving her hair away from her face.

Hyemi followed the delicate movement of her hand. She noted how the cameras didn't really show how ghostly white Kyungri's skin was.

 

With a sigh, Kyungri spoke again. "I put the word out that you're helping reach a friend with whom I've lost contact, so your investigations should be safe."

"What about Sungah? She was there when the A--" Hyemi paused, her eyebrows knitting together, and Kyungri caught on her dilemma before she could add the better version of her words. _When you friend..._

"Sojin. She said she forgot to introduce herself," Kyungri told her. The smile on her lips was of fondness. Hyemi felt it. "It made her worried. And I thought you trusted Sungah?"

She did, and did not. It was never clear with Sungah. Even after all those years of growing up in the house next to Sungah's, Hyemi never figured out what ran in her ageless neighbour's head. But it was running, Hyemi was sure of that. Sungah was always in a hurry.

 _"It's complicated"_ was what Hyemi settled on for an answer. It didn't seem to be a satisfying answer if the mayor's hum and fixated eyes were any indication.

She didn't press it.

 

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, Sungah doesn't drink human blood, so if she already figured out this was about Blood Networks, she would stay out of it."

Kyungri gazed one last time at the brightening horizon as she finished, and maybe Keumjo was right because there was longing swirling in her eyes. And that longing tugged at Hyemi's heart painfully, leaving one wish in her heart, foreign and new, lingering just enough for Hyemi to be aware of.

If only she knew of a place where the sun rose and gave vampires warmth instead of fire.

 

"I'll be waiting for your results, Detective Pyo," Kyungri said after a moment, and Hyemi pretended like she had not been caught staring.

"Hyemi."

Hyemi did not falter by how rushed the word slipped past her lips.

Kyungri smiled wide. "It's beautiful."

 

Funny, Hyemi thought exactly the same about all of her.

 

,

 

Sunrise Futures, Judge Week, Nol Siblings, Kim Sun, and two of Dandan hospital's board members were the main suspects Hyemi found, both humans and vampires.

 

"I set up a message with our current locations, saved every two minutes, to be sent to both our tablets and to Sungah in case something bad happened." Keumjo's voice came out steady amidst the noise of the traffic. "If we were in danger or pain, this will sense any worrying change in our vitals," she added as she stuck a tiny band on the back of Hyemi's hand. It instantly took the color of her skin.

"Where did you get that from? And why her?" _It was usually Yuna on Keumjo's speed dial._

Keumjo was squinting her eyes as she typed on her tablet, trying to win against the warmest of the sun rays winter had given them yet. She had forgotten to lower the visor again, or simply had been too focused to care. _She did that sometimes,_ Hyemi reached to press the visor down. There were still a few minutes before they reached the mayor's house, perhaps more if the traffic did not move.

"Sungah has been trying to get the new shipment of Phantom bullest, the one still docked at Nol Bay, and since you worked there when you were a rookie, you'll know how to help her get it easily."

"What?! I will never help her get those bullets," Hyemi let out, then blared her car's horn as if to affirm her refusal. It only mixed into the already existing symphony of other horns and wheezing vehicales above their heads. She huffed, massaging her temple. "She'll only get more powerful and threaten anyone and everyone as she likes, or sell them to worse gangs."

"She's already doing that, and the only reason she doesn't bother us is because she knows you from before she was turned, but do you really think that's enough for her to risk her life? She wants that shipment, Hyemi, and at least we won't be owing her our lives or something." Keumjo let the tablet fall to her lap once she finished, relaxing on her seat. "And she won't sell them any time soon, the mobs at Seven are getting fed up with her dominating business."

"Well, Yuna never asked us of anything in return whenever we needed her. Besides, all we're going to do is find it, who's running it and where, nothing more."

Keumjo adjusted herself to face her properly. "Yuna is my friend, and even if that's all what we're doing, it could still be dangerous, Hyemi, and we need a dangerous person on our side."

The slow speed of her car unnerved Hyemi, but it was Keumjo's worry that weighed heavily in her heart. Inescapable and loud.

 

,

 

While the mayor had her own list of suspects, which she had neglected to mention because she assumed it would affect Hyemi's judgement, and three of the names on it were also on Hyemi's list, none of the leads they found after that took them anywhere.

Hyemi had had to resist the urge to feel offended by the fact that the mayor had a list and did not tell her. "Mayor, I assure you I'm very good at my job," Hyemi had replied, to which the mayor only smiled. In apology.

Hyemi would not admit that that urge strangely faded when the mayor shared her concerns about their safety, but Keumjo's evident silence and familiar 'I'm not smiling' smile told her she didn't have to admit anything.

 

Regardless, it wasn't like Hyemi was about to risk her life and Keumjo's. Even with Dandan's laws being strict, and the weapons and instructions to fight off vampires being widely available, none of that would win against vampires' strength and speed most of the time.

Back to now, they needed to shorten the list to one, and the only way to do that would be by starting to snoop around and investigate.

Mayor Park was against that. _A few days later and more dead ends, and she was still against that!_ "It's too dangerous, Hyemi. If they saw you lurking around, or simply suspected anyone knew about the network, they'd do anything to make sure they don't talk," Kyungri said, then finally looked away from the board she had set up, an amused look in her eyes. "I don't have to demonstrate vampires' real power, do I? I know it could be easily forgotten in our current times."

She wasn't mocking her, Hyemi had sensed the teasing in her voice, in her soft giggles that had come in response to her raise of eyebrows. She was trying humor, Hyemi wasn't sure she disliked the attempt.

 

Hyemi exhaled deeply through her nose and slumped on the chair. It wasn't a new chair, brought for the comfort of the two humans visiting her, and neither were the table and the other items and furniture in the living room. Hyemi could tell, and she suspected that it wasn't any different for the rest of the humble house, for which she had two reasons: Kyungri did not seem like the type to erase any resemblance to her human life. At least, that was what Hyemi gathered from her recent interview with Dandancing Lights magazine.

Reason Number Two was the fact that the mayor had Silencer installed on the walls of her home: a device that would diminish the noise coming from outside until it was of human hearing levels, and completely prevent the noise from inside from leaving the house.

Hyemi would not be able to tell how it worked, though. It only affected vampires' hearing, it seemed because she could still hear the noise from outside, mostly from the nearby park, normal and surprisingly relaxing for such an hour. Hyemi would take this noise over the flying vehicles shaking her windows any time.

 

Hyemi closed her eyes when Kyungri and Keumjo started going through the evidences again. She figured they would reach the same dead end. The three remaining suspects were equally the potential culprit.

"We're missing something here. Judge Week doesn't have that many connections to do this crime, Nol Siblings don't have a property big enough for this, and Sunrise Futures doesn't hire or even like vampires. So unless they're working together in secret and pretending like they don't know each other in public, we might have the wrong suspects here," Hyemi said when the two sounded stuck. "Mayor, are you sure your list is the only thing you forgot to mention?"

 

Kyungri, the name echoes in Hyemi's mind with the mayor's soft voice, a lovely and enchanting reminder that required Hyemi's best effort to ignore it. Stray thoughts were ruining her focus more than usual.

Kyungri smiled, for the first time in the last few hours. "Sojin said you'd be upset. I should have listened to her." Kyungri looked at her watch. "Speaking of which, she must be working overtime--"

 

Hyemi stood all of sudden when she realized that she liked the mayor's smile - more than she should. "Um, I need some air." She explained when the two looked at her, puzzled. Keumjo with her sleepy eyes, and the mayor with her charming ones.

She picked up her jacket and left before any of them could say anything.

Normally, when Hyemi reached dead ends, it would be due to the lack of evidences, not because her mind was distracted. Not because there were flutters settling in the pit of her stomach since the moment she saw the mayor that day, clad in formal shirt and trousers, with her hair resting on her shoulders.

 

,

Sometimes, if Hyemi was lucky enough, serenity would drape over the city the moment the sky turned to black. Empty of stars, true, but usually the moon would be enough to show its beauty. Tonight, however, Hyemi wasn't lucky and the park did not offer the quiet to help her figure out her case.

There were teenagers playing in the warm fountains and with the dancing robots. There were tourists capturing pictures of anything and everything that made Dandan different from the rest of Sundae region. There were happiness and joy and excitement, loud and clear, and Hyemi sat on the bench and watched everyone go on about their lives, completely oblivious to what was going on, to what was being hidden behind a sad story.

 

Hyemi contemplated getting herself tea from the drinks machine. It had all kinds of drinks, including vampires' favorite. (The option for a cup of blood was always turned off during the day, and if someone pushed it by mistake, or on purpose, they would get either a playful song or a lecture about vampires' rights before they could get their drink. It all depended on one's luck.)

Anyway, tea might help her get her focus back--

Hyemi gazed at the machine. A huge, smart box that had a gentle voice installed in it to reply customers, whom it always served diligently, that sometimes would spread a beautiful scent of the drinks it served to enchant people to buy. One of the obvious tricks that would protect the company who made these machines from even hearing the term Bankruptcy.

 

,

 

Hyemi entered Kyungri's house with a heart pounding in her chest. She heard soft laughter coming from the living room. Sojin returned, and it seemed that she had brought food with her from the restaurant she worked at because the smell was quickly lingering in Hyemi's nostrils, and it alone was delicious.

 

 _Black Gardens was the city where Artificial Humans were born,_ Sojin had explained when Keumjo asked her why she worked two jobs. _There might be still... parts... good parts. In the old factories._ She had spoken nervously, her physical core giving her away easily with wide patches of pink appearing and fading from her skin.

 

Black Gardens had always been a dream, or a destination for many. It was and still is the number one most advanced city in the entire world. Always soaring toward new heights, always leaving the rest of the world behind. Hyemi had only hoped it would not be out of Sojin's reach.

 

Despite not interrupting their conversation, her entrance must have felt abrupt all the same because the room fell into silence as Hyemi headed to the board.

"How could you hide a blood network from vampires you definitely don't want to sell or provide blood for?" Hyemi asked as she wiped the other two names from the board. "How could you block the smell of blood from vampires when they're everywhere?"

 

Hyemi was met with their puzzled expressions, but that only lasted for a moment.

"You can't, unless you don't keep vampires nearby at all," Kyungri answered her.

_Unless you refused to hire them, and started a campaign against them through the media every now and then just out of spite._

 

"Of course! Sunrise Futures had a new CEO a few years ago," Keumjo said, the small box of food that had been in her hands dropped to the table in favor of getting her tablet. It almost fell off if Sojin hadn't caught it. "Wanna guess exactly how many years ago?" Keumjo asked, her eyes bright with thrill.

 

"Are you sure?" Kyungri asked, a look on her face serious and telling of neither fear nor relief, but of something darker. Weak and strong all together, unfolding clearly on Kyungri's features.

"Yes."

"Then the network should be placed either the furthest from Dandan or--" Kyungri paused, staring at the board. "Sunrise Futures' presence is prominent on both local and international scales, but it would be too risky to sell blood for Dandan's vampires, or even anyone from Sundae region."

"So we're looking for branches that deal only with foreign clients, got it." Keumjo said.

 

"What happens now though?" Hyemi asked all of a sudden. "If they felt safe enough to make the network in the first place, that means they have the power to protect themselves."

 

Kyungri had a small smile on her face when she answered. Beautiful enough to erase any trace of fury. "My acquaintances are waiting for my call, Hyemi. We will deal with this quietly."

 

Hyemi pursed her lips, noticing the joy brightening Sojin's features at hearing that. She had gathered her hands in a soft clapping. And when Keumjo spoke again, she's a little too excited, probably forgetting that their job ended here. "There are four possible locations, Mayor."

"Thank you, Keumjo, send the coordinates to my tablet," she told her, then turned to Hyemi. "Thank you, Detective Pyo. I probably wouldn't have figured this case without you."

"Probably?" Hyemi made an attempt to tease her, but her hear faltered when Kyungri's smile widened, beamed with ease. "We can still help, you know," she countered as she gathered their things. "This could be far more dangerous than what you think."

"Hyemi, we both know if it's dangerous for me, it'd be deadly for you."

 

"Ouch," Keumjo let out in a low voice. Surprisingly, she didn't make a case to change the mayor's mind. It only proved that the mayor was not exaggerating.

But that did not mean Hyemi didn't frown, gazing at the mayor. "Thanks for your confidence, Mayor," She commented as Sojin offered her help to take their stuff to the car.

Kyungri lifted her hands in peace. "I'm just saying that I won't risk your life or Keumjo's. Or Sojin's for that matter. They must have people from both sides, which would be easy for us to fight if all of us ran the same pace."

"Hm, because humans are no match for vampires, right?"

Kyungri's reply to that was widened eyes. "That was not what I said."

 

Hyemi smiled. "I know." For some reason, her heart, swelled with worry and fear and all the things that came doubled with this case, became at ease due to such an adorable reaction.

"Be careful," Hyemi spoke again, and her voice sounded heavy with feelings she hadn't had the time to fight off or even acknowledge. Not that it mattered now. "Vampires or not, everyone can be tricky."

She reached her hand for a shake, fully aware that Sojin and Keumjo were stalling outside on purpose.

 

"Is that worry I'm hearing, Detective Pyo? I'm flattered." Kyungri teased her with a pleased smile, accepting her hand. And despite knowing how cold vampires' skin could be, how firm their hold could be, Hyemi did not find of that too obvious in Kyungri's touch.

Hyemi did not answer the mayor, only gave her one last smile, which Kyungri returned with a calm one of her own. A smile that would linger in Hyemi's mind, in her heart, for a while because it did not matter that Kyungri had her charmed or not. Hyemi loved that smile and wished to see it this close again, to have it meant only for her.


End file.
